


So Close and Yet So Far

by VictoriaG16



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: F/F, angsty fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:24:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VictoriaG16/pseuds/VictoriaG16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A certain Starship Captain and a certain Chief Engineer both need a little comfort. Set during Basics, part II.</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Close and Yet So Far

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know how I started shipping this, but alas here we are

"Everything seems to be calming down," B'elanna reported, finally letting herself drop next to the fire beside the Captain. With a grim smile, she added, "Or, at least as calm as it'll get around here."

Kathryn nodded, her eyes locked onto the weak fire in front of them. B'elanna began to stand, to add more wood to the fire, but a firm hand latched onto hers and pulled her, gently, back down. Kathryn shook her head, hauling herself to her feet. "Allow me." B'elanna normally would have argued, but instead nodded, moving a bit closer to the fire.

Kathryn added more wood, and retook her place beside B'elanna. Which was much closer than the pair normally would have sat -- but it was far too cold on this planet. Yes, it was the cold.

Several moments of comfortable silence lapsed between them, interrupted by the sparking and popping of the warm fire. Both had their feet close by the rocks to keep them warm, regulation boots sitting upright beside them.

"What are we going to do?" B'elanna whispered. "I couldn't stand living here my whole life. And I don't even have anyone to get back to." For the first time, B'elanna truly felt lucky that she had nobody to return home to. Everybody she cared about was here -- Chakotay, Harry, the Captain. Well, except Tom, but that was a very complicated situation, and she wasn't entirely sure she missed him.

"I wouldn't tell anybody else, save Chakotay, this but I don't know, B'elanna. I don't know." Kathryn gave a heavy sigh, letting her head droop into her hands, auburn hair falling out of its simple ponytail. B'elanna savored the way her first name felt as it rolled off Kathryn's tongue. She liked it when she called her "B'elanna" and not "Lieutenant Torres" or some variation of that. B'elanna.

B'elanna had never been great at comforting others, but slinging an arm around the other's shoulder and pulling her even closer was nearly instinctual. She didn't have to think about it, she just _did_.

She expected Kathryn to pull away, sit up straight as a ramrod, as professional as ever. But nobody was watching now, they were the only two still awake, besides those taking watch duty, who were closer to the perimeter. Instead, she leaned her head on B'elanna's shoulder and gave the slightest of sighs.

Neither spoke for a long time, until B'elanna broke the silence with words that spilled off her tongue before she could stop them. "Sometimes, I think that you all are worth it, you and Harry and Chakotay, that even if I had stay way out here in the Delta quadrant, I'd be okay if I had you guys. But then I remember that I don't have anyone else."

Kathryn's arm slid around B'elanna's waist, taking her by surprise. Though, the decided, it was certainly a nice sensation. "I think the same thing too, sometimes. And I have Mark and my dogs and other friends back home." A smile flashed across her face, and B'elanna savored it. Maybe, years from now, if she and this wonderful, incredible, intelligent, beautiful woman went their separate ways, she would remember that second in which she smiled in the middle of a crisis. She would try to never forget that moment.

It seemed that B'elanna was operating on autopilot. First the hug-like gesture, then the talking. And then, and then she leaned her chin a bit to the side, and pressed her lips against the captain's.

She was more than surprised when said captain kissed her back.

It wasn't a particularly long or passionate kiss, but it conveyed a lot -- the doubts, the terror buried under professionalism, the longing for a home. It was all there, and when B'elanna pulled back, she thought that maybe she was closer to the captain than she had ever been.

And she never wanted it to end. She wanted to suspend time in this one moment, with Kathryn Janeway entwined so close.

But she was also very far away, as B'elanna always suspected she would be. Maybe B'elanna was the same way -- she could be close, but she'd always be far away.

It would either be a match made in heaven or the ultimate recipe for disaster.


End file.
